* Daily Greek Lesson, or My Daily Therapy

----To make a long story short, Charles Wallace gets his mind possessed by this writhing brain known simply as IT, which remotely controls everyone's brain and forces him to relax, stop making decisions, and succumb to it.

----Very emotional scene, flashing lights, screaming. Charles Wallace is freed, everyone goes home, and the world is saved. Altogether a very clean and tidy ending, but that's not what I wanted to talk about. I'm confused about why they say the brain, IT, cannot love. Not to belabor a cliche, but... what is this love, anyway?

----I think the best place to start is with the Greek. This information is from "The Four Loves", by C.S. Lewis. In biblical Greek, there are several words for love:

• storge- the love of parents to children and vice versa
• philio- brotherly love
• eros- "in love" love
• agape- a decisional love of someone to a higher-up, like a disciple to his master.

----What can't the brain feel? IT has and likes his perfect world in which, literally, everything moves to the same beat- balls bounce, hearts beat, people talk (which is why some dialogue feels like a sonnet). IT is mentally superior and knows it, so I guess it doesn't do agape. There's nothing that he feels deserves respect, let alone love. Eros is out of the question, too. This kind of love is totally irrational, which is precisely what IT hates.

----I'm wondering about storge, though. This is the parent-to-child love. Isn't he fond of the people under his control? Once someone submits to his mind powers, he likes them and gives them a place to live. And it doesn't seem like puny humans can give something to this excellent creature, so it's not getting anything out of the relationship. But then, why does he bother? So storge is possible with IT.

----Finally, philio. IT doesn't respect anyone, with reason, because no one is as perfect as he is. No one is as intelligent or unbiased. And no one is less subject to the flaws of being human. It doesn't treat anyone with respect, let alone as an equal. Not philio.

----So, I have argued with Meg's claim and Mrs. Whatsit's hint that IT cannot love. He loves his people like a king because that's really what he is. Granted, he controls his subjects differently than most rulers, but he still loves.

----Wow, though. If a disembodied brain, squishy and pulsing on a table, is capable of loving, anyone is. That guy picking his nose the next table over, the bag lady scowling at the sidewalk, the goatee dude taking orders at McDonalds- they can all love. They have loves, secrets, think they're outsiders. Just like me.

----Could it be that someone else has consciousness? Someone else is the same species as I am?

----I sigh and listen to the dishwasher beep. Unnatural artificial lights burn my eyes when I look naively upward, still dazed from the psychology of six billion people at once. But my name is Dorothea. I'm going to school tomorrow, and I have an established life with no room for philosophy. Choose your world: Earth, with broken cameras, smog and all things comfortingly tangible, or the mind, versatile, dark, and nowhere near under your control. Make a choice. You can't live in two places at once.

----I'm scared to make that choice. Maybe everyone is. Could be, now that we're all humans.